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Detroit Red Wings fans grimaced whenever he was announced as the team’s starting goaltender.
They demanded he be traded – sooner, rather than later.
Wednesday, when the Wings open the Stanley Cup playoffs against the Tampa Bay Lightning, he will be Detroit’s starting goalie.
Ladies and gentleman, welcome to the reclamation of Jimmy Howard.
Written off as recently as a couple of months ago, it’s safe to say if not for Howard’s work down the stretch, Detroit’s consecutive run as a playoff team would have also been written off.
“I'm just looking forward to the challenge of going out there and competing with the guys,” said Howard, who hasn’t seen post-season action since Game 3 of Detroit’s 2014 first-round series against the Boston Bruins. “No one person can go out there and do it by themselves during the playoffs. You need to collectively as a group be pulling in the same direction.
“I think we have that within our group.”
Pulling was what was happening too frequently to Howard as he struggled through a terrible drought in December and January. Often, in games in which he was the starting goalie, he wasn’t the closing goalie.
“I never wavered confidence,” Howard said as he worked to come out of his funk. “If I did that, I wouldn't be in the NHL.
“It was just a thing of needing to get some puck luck and a couple bounces here and there to go my way and just try and get the ball rolling again.”
Fortunately for the Wings, just as Petr Mrazek’s game went south, Howard rediscovered his touch and was able to step in and shoulder the load as Detroit battled to make the playoffs.
“I think it’s tremendous character he showed this year,” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. “It’s easy to have great character when things are going well. When things aren’t going well, it’s not easy.
“He didn’t feel sorry for himself, he went to work. He went to work with (goalie coach) Jimmy Bedard and he got his game in a spot where he felt he was going to be confident when he got back in games.
“I watched him in practice, I saw his game get back in order, I saw his feet set, I saw the puck sticking to him, I saw him in control of his body and I think it was in (New York) where he kind of had a breakout game saying ‘I’m back.’
“So he’s done a real good job. We’re real happy he’s in that spot. To be honest with you I see the same thing going on with Petr. I see him as somebody who’s getting his game back and in a good spot. Jimmy’s done a great job. We’re real happy with the way he’s attacked it.”
Juggling His Lines
Blashill tried some new line combinations in practice Tuesday on the eve of Wednesday’s series opener at Amalie Arena, reuniting Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk alongside Justin Abdelkader, while Dylan Larkin was slotted in alongside Darren Helm and Brad Richards.
“That's how we practiced today so we'll make decisions tomorrow on the finality of the lineup but that's how we practiced today,” Blashill said.
Blashill believes the chemistry that exists between Datsyuk and Zetterberg could provide an edge to the Wings over the course of the seven-game set.
“We'd still like to get two percent better,” he explained. “I think we're on a quest to continue to try to improve as a hockey team.
“We grinded our way into the playoffs but we'd still like to continue to be better and sometimes those two together, the spark that they provide, not only each other but our team, can be real positive thing so we'll see.”
The unit of Riley Sheahan between Tomas Tatar and Gustav Nyquist remained intact, while Luke Glendening, Andreas Athanasiou and Joakim Andersson formed the fourth line, with Tomas Jurco and Teemu Pulkkinen the extra forwards.
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